Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win both Vijaypur and Budhni in the upcoming by-elections in Madhya Pradesh.
He said the BJP’s central leadership has fielded ‘able and deserving’ candidates for both seats and now the party workers have to ensure their victory with a big margin.
Chouhan on Monday chaired a meeting to review the party’s preparations in Budhni, the Assembly seat he represented six times between 1990 and 2023.
Apart from the BJP workers from Budhni, the party’s candidate Ramakant Bhargava and Minister Krishna Gaur, who is in charge of Sehore district were present in the meeting held at Chouhan’s residence in Bhopal.
However, former BJP MLA Rajendra Singh Rajput, who was racing for a ticket for Budhni by-elections, wasn’t in the meeting. Ramakant Bhargava said that all party leaders would be present during for filing of the nomination paper.
After chairing the meeting, Chouhan said, “People of Budhni are ready to elect Ramakant Bhargava their new MLA. The BJP will win Budhni and Vijaypur by-elections with a big margin.”
The bypolls was necessitated after Chouhan was elected as Lok Sabha MP from Vidisha and resigned from the state assembly.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, Chouhan won from Budhni by a margin of more than 1.05 lakh votes against Congress’ Vikram ‘Mastal’ Sharma.
Chouhan was elected MLA for the first time from Budhni in 1990, however, he resigned from the state Assembly after winning Lok Sabha by-election from Vidisha in 1991.
His second inning from his home turf began after he replaced Babulal Gaur as Chief Minister in 2005. Chouhan contested bypolls from Budhni in 2006 and since then he won as many as four consecutive Assembly elections until 2023.
The by-elections in Vijaypur were necessitated after Rawat, a six-term MLA from Vijaypur, had moved from the Congress to the BJP in April and resigned from his legislative membership in July.
Rawat, who is the state forest minister, will be contesting by-elections on BJP’s ticket. The Congress has Mukesh Malhotra, relatively a less popular leader than Rawat.
While from Budhni, the Congress has fielded party veteran party Rajkumar Patel, who had won Budhni seat in 1993 and 1998 and was a minister in former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh’s government
The two seats are scheduled to go to vote on November 13 while the counting will be on November 23.
